How we protect student information when using AI

To help draft an IEP or summarise support notes, AI needs to understand a student's learning needs. It does not need their name, email address or student number. We prepare a separate copy of the relevant information and reduce identifying details before that copy reaches the AI provider.

For these student-data features, storage and AI processing take place in the school's chosen, supported region. The checks that prepare information for AI also run within that region. The school's processing schedule identifies the approved provider, location and retention arrangements. If the required regional service or protection checks are unavailable, we stop the request.

What happens to the information?

Use the information needed for the task. For an IEP, you use selected notes and evidence to prepare short learning facts about strengths, needs, adjustments and progress. You can edit these facts and check them against the original records. The AI receives the prepared brief, not the full source notes. Automatic support summaries use the saved notes and evidence covered by that feature. We do not send the student's entire file by default.
Prepare information from an existing document. When this feature is enabled, we scan and read an uploaded document within the private student-data service. When you choose to process the document, we protect identifying details before the approved regional AI service organises learning information into editable suggestions. The original stays with the student's record. We restore the student's name for your review. You can view the original document, edit the suggestions and confirm which information to save, keeping the document's date and previous plan period in context.
Reduce identifying details before sending. We replace the student's known name with a label such as “Student A”, remove known school names and any additional identifiers you supply, and check for incidental names, contact details, addresses and identifiers. Detected details are removed or replaced with neutral labels. We aim to keep the learning needs, observations and responses to support that make the result useful.
Review the IEP information. Before an IEP request is sent, you can inspect the exact prepared information and remove unnecessary or identifying context. Prompts highlight some potentially identifying circumstances, but cannot detect every risk. Automatic summaries use the same protective checks when notes or evidence change, without asking you to approve every update.
Process within the school's region. The prepared information goes to the approved AI service for that region. This student-data process is separate from ordinary teaching-resource generation.
Check and personalise the result. AI output passes through identifying-information checks before it is shown or stored. Inside the protected workspace, Teacher's Buddy restores the student's name when authorised staff view a summary or plan. Exports include a personalised plan copy alongside the saved record. The saved AI text keeps its neutral student label, and further AI refinement uses the pseudonymised version. Your original notes remain unchanged; a generated summary or plan is a separate draft for staff to check.

A simple example

An invented note might say: “Alex Morgan needs a visual checklist and two verbal prompts to begin independent writing.”

The information prepared for AI can say: “Student A needs a visual checklist and two verbal prompts to begin independent writing.” The learning information remains useful without supplying the student's name.

Does this make the information anonymous?

No. Removing a name reduces the risk of identifying someone, but an unusual event, family situation or combination of details could still identify a student. Automated checks can also miss details. We therefore continue to treat the prepared information as sensitive student information, with school authorisation, regional processing and access controls.

Include what is useful for the educational task and leave out unnecessary personal history. Check an AI draft against the source information before using it. AI does not verify a diagnosis, make an eligibility decision or replace professional judgement.

School control and the full terms

Schools authorise student-data functionality and AI processing. Staff still need permission to access individual student records. Withdrawing authorisation stops new processing; retention and deletion follow the school's applicable schedule.

This explanation covers the protected student-data features. Account, billing and general teaching-resource services are described separately in our policies. Provider retention and any monitoring arrangements are covered by the processing schedule; replacing names does not itself guarantee that no data is retained.